DN 8-10-17: Fake Eclipse glasses, sonic attack!

The need for Solar Eclipse glasses that protect the eyes of the millions who will be witnessing history on Aug. 21 has created business opportunities. As such, there are plenty of people looking to make a quick buck by selling fake glasses.

The problem with these scams is that they can cause serious eye problems for those viewing the eclipse. NASA and the American Astronomical Society are alert to the fakes populating the glasses market and are doing their best to thwart scams.

“Everything was going along fine until the public started to wake up to the eclipse and started buying things that may or may not be safe,” said Rick Fienberg, an astronomer and press officer at the American Astronomical Society, via Quartz. “Now they are peppering us and NASA with questions.”

It’s unfortunate for the legitimate sellers on the market, who have been approved and are selling safe, helpful products.

“It’s all nonsense,” said Mark Margolis, of NASA-approved Rainbow Symphony. “There are a zillion companies putting out the same product and they all have different names. And this isn’t because I don’t want competition in the marketplace. We’re oversold and on backorder. It’s not my motive to keep competitors out of the market.”

If you still need to buy yours, here are the five companies NASA recommends:

The eclipse will be visible from most places in America, but only a limited portion of the country will experience the total eclipse.

U.S., Cuba probing possible sonic device in embassy attacks

U.S. law enforcement and Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Affairs are investigating an incident in which two Cuban diplomats allegedly used a device in an "acoustic attack" on American officials in Havana, senior officials with both countries said Thursday.

A senior federal law enforcement official told NBC News that agencies are probing what appears to be an attack using ultrasound energy. The State Department's office of Diplomatic Security is leading the investigation and the FBI is helping.

On Wednesday, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the two Cuban diplomats were expelled from the United States over the allegations.

"Some United States government personnel who were working at our embassy in Havana, Cuba, on official duties have reported some incidents which have caused a variety of physical symptoms," she said during a press briefing. "We don't have any definitive answers about the source or the cause of what we consider to be incidents.

With Bank Subpoenas, Mueller Is Said to Squeeze Manafort

U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller is bearing down on former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort as he directs a wide-ranging probe into Russian interference in last year’s presidential election.

Mueller’s team of investigators has sent subpoenas in recent weeks from a Washington grand jury to global banks for account information and records of transactions involving Manafort and some of his companies, as well as those of a long-time business partner, Rick Gates, according to people familiar with the matter.

The special counsel has also reached out to other business associates, including Manafort’s son-in-law and a Ukrainian oligarch, according to one of the people. Those efforts were characterized as an apparent attempt to gain information that could be used to squeeze Manafort, or force him to be more helpful to prosecutors.

Manafort’s spokesman confirmed that FBI agents raided the political consultant’s home in Virginia two weeks ago to secure documents related to the investigation. That raid was initially reported by the Washington Post.

As prosecutors gather many years of information about his financial affairs, Manafort could be dragged deeper into any number of legal disputes. He has a history of doing business with oligarchs and politicians in Ukraine and Russia that predates his political work for President Donald Trump, with payments routed through foreign banks and investments in U.S. real estate.

Fear Of Being Called A Racist Preventing Child Abuse Investigations, Says UK Official

A British lawmaker claimed Thursday that "people are more afraid to be called a racist than they are afraid to be wrong about calling out child abuse," according to a BBC interview.

Sarah Champion, the Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, made her comments after 18 people were found guilty of abusing girls in Newcastle. The victims were required to consume alcohol and drugs before the convicted men forcibly engaged in sexual relations with the girls. Most of the convicted participants were of Asian descent.

During her appearance on BBC’s Radio 4 Today, Champion, a Labour Party Member of Parliament for Rotherham, claimed that it's important to recognize that British Pakistani men were primarily found guilty of crimes in other towns similar to Newcastle.

"It just pains me that this is going on time and time and time again and the Government aren’t researching what is going on," Champion said.

"We have got now, hundreds of Pakistani men who have been convicted of this crime, why are we not commissioning research to see what is going on and how we need to change what is going on."

Champion added that she anticipates backlash for her comments from the far-right and the "floppy" left. However, she claims that her argument "isn’t racist, this is child protection."

Northumbria Police reportedly paid a convicted child rapist nearly £10,000 ($12,976) over a span of 21 months to gather evidence on Newcastle sex abusers, according to the Guardian.

The spy, referred to as XY, was required to alert law enforcement to the times and locations of gatherings where young girls would be forced to consume alcohol and drugs. He helped to provide information in one of the Northumbria Police's biggest investigations to date.

"I accept that some people will not agree with [the] position we have taken, but I have to be content, on the back of the convictions we have secured to date, that it was the right thing to do," Ashman said.

Asteroid to shave past Earth inside Moon orbit

An asteroid the size of a house will shave past Earth at a distance of some 44,000 kilometres (27,300 miles) in October, inside the Moon's orbit, astronomers said Thursday.

The space rock will zoom by at an eighth of the distance from the Earth to the Moon -- far enough to just miss our geostationary satellites orbiting at about 36,000 kilometres, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).

"It will not hit the Earth," said Detlef Koschny of ESA's "Near Earth Objects" research team. "That's the most important thing to say."

The asteroid, dubbed TC4, first flitted past our planet in October 2012 -- then at about double the distance before disappearing. It is about 15-30 metres (49-98 feet) long.

Scientists expected the asteroid to return for a near-Earth rendezvous this year, but did not know how far.

Now, the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile has managed to track down the rock and determine its distance.

"It's damn close," said Rolf Densing, who heads the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany.

"The farthest satellites are 36,000 kilometres out, so this is indeed a close miss," he told AFP, adding it was nothing to lose sleep over.

"As close as it is right now, I think this prediction is pretty safe... meaning that it will miss."

No one is going to talk about Crowdstrike, the only cyber agency to see the DNC servers and blame Russia is now backtracking on portions of it? The malware they said infected the DNC and Ukraine, they had to backtrack because Ukraine confirmed it was hogwash along with the whole "Fuzzybear" ********? Crowdstrike literally caught lying about blaming the Russians on the exact same malware claim and not a peep from anyone.

No one is going to talk about the forensic analysis from NSA Ops, VIPS organization, and other intelligence Ops confirmed that the Guccifer 2.0 fabricated Russian fingerprints that was discovered that the data had to be collected locally on a USB? Not some guy in Romania.

No one is going to talk about how the DNC is now saying the FBI and DHS never requested the servers for investigation? Something that was the whole base of the argument to all this?

No. One of the most important stories to share and spread and instead you guys want to talk about Meuller's theatrics that only show they apparently have to stretch into ********************** just so they don't seem useless.

How the **** do you guys pick your news stories? How is something like this not on your radar? And if it is, why the **** would you think it's not important? People literally pushing for a nuclear war between the 2 most powerful nations on earth, which all hinges on a proven lying organization on blaming one of the said powerful nations, now in extreme question, and you guys say squat.

These parents are "protecting" their children by not reporting on the "Asians" that are drugging and sexual abusing them out of fear they will be called racist. That has got to be the purest definition of selfish and irrational stupidity I have ever heard.

I was arrest for stopping group of Asian kids from beating up a white kid I would have been charged with racial motivated assault all I did was push the little **** stain off the kid thank **** Sikh shop keeper came out to defend me this neatly cost me my place at uni due on if **** heads brother goes to same one so h spread rumours about me being neo nazi which in turn made me perahia at uni can you see why I had to ******* leave I ould leave my bag without some ****** trying to either **** with me or destroy my work going to student council did **** all to them I had beaten up a members little brother for racists reasons worst part is I can't prove any of ******* bullying I got at that place due ******* retards being in positions were they can turn you away

The way they intentionally ignore saying Middle Eastern or Pakistani or the actual specific regions these men come from infuriates me. Besides, who do these ******* think that they're fooling? Does anyone really think that a gang of Japanese or Vietnamese men did this? The media would have said their nationalities or race if they were anyway, ironically.

Nope, in england the Japs and Gooks are Orientals. A bit further down the article they clearly state that "Pakistani men were primarily found guilty" and ""We have got now, hundreds of Pakistani men who have been convicted of this crime,".

They ain't trying to fool anyone they just have a different idea of which Asians are to be referred to as Asians.

"Asian (plural Asians)

1. A person from Asia.
2. A person with Asian ancestry.
3. (US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) A person from or with ancestry in East or Southeast Asia.
4. (Britain, South Africa) A person from or with ancestry in the Indian subcontinent." - en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Asian

Why'd you thumb me down and bring up the word "Asia" instead of "Asian"? Which as you can see from the same source you were using does not conflict with what I wrote in >>#32, Asia (Minor) pretty much being synonymous with Anatolia.

Almost six months of investigation to determine if the trump presidency colluded with the Russians during the election, nothing. Robert Mueller comes in, and what happens? Screw investigating for a collusion let's investigate everyone in the administration for ANY connection to the Russians. Still can't find enough of what we want? Alright, let's try this, we know that manaforte is corrupt, and he most definitely is let's just investigate everything we can about him until he cries uncle and is will to say whatever we tell him to.

I'd have a lot less issue with Robert Muellers' investigation if it weren't for his and a number of members of his teams' past connections. Mueller/Comey www.cnn.com/2017/05/17/politics/james... Hell even WAPO admits Muellers team have Democratic connections www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-poli... Jeannie Rhee Clinton foundation connection www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-rada...
There are some good members on the team as well, like Michael Dreeban for example. he really knows what he's doing But even Dreeban is a concern since he's still working in the justice department, which could cause a conflict of interests. I was thrilled when I heard there'd be an independent investigator, but come on let's make it a little less obvious that this is a witch hunt.
I know we have a lot of "Never Trumpers" on here that will disagree simply because they believe I'm a huge Trump supporter, so let me say this as well. I do believe that Russians fiddled around during the run up to the election, I just don't think Trumps team worked with them. Trump has said a lot of stupid things, and tweeted even more. So has every other president, this doesn't make him a bad president, it makes him an egotistical, thin skinned jackass... just like the rest of the politicians in the US.
I don't like some of the **** Trump has done, and I'm willing to point out when he screws up. It's you guys that are so blind that you won't acknowledge when he does something right. Grow up, you're acting as bad as the idiots who refuse to acknowledge the good Obama did.
You know who you are, and whether you want to admit it or not you know that I'm right.